Vasiliy Lomachenko Just Edges Terence Crawford To Continue His Reign As The BWAA’s Pound-For-Pound K
For the fifth-straight time, Vasiliy Lomachenko is the BWAA’s pound-for-pound king. Lomachenko maintains the No. 1 spot, once again outlasting Terence Crawford, who held the No. 1 position for the first two BWAA’s pound-for-pound polls, which are selected by BWAA members from respected news outlets and is broken down based on a descending points system, with a first-place vote receiving 10 points, a second-place vote receiving nine points and so on. Ties go to the fighter with the most votes.
The Boxing Writers Association of America will be listing on a bi-monthly basis its top-10 pound-for-pound fighters in the world. All BWAA members, full and auxiliary, can send their top-10 pound-for-pound votes in by the first Monday of each even month to JSantoliquitoBWAA@yahoo.com. The next deadline will be Monday, June 3, 2019, with the results posted later that month—and open to change based on a significant late result if the poll hasn’t been posted yet.
The response to the poll continues to be strong.
The twist in this month’s poll is that Crawford actually received the most first-place votes (11) than Lomachenko (10), but “Loma,” the BWAA’s 2017 Fighter of the Year, received nine second-place votes to Crawford’s seven. Since the BWAA has been conducting these polls, this is the closest poll ever recorded.
The top three BWAA pound-for-pound fighters remain the same, with middleweight titlist Canelo Alvarez following Lomachenko and Crawford, respectively, holding at No. 3.
Errol Spence Jr. made the largest leap from No. 8 to No. 4, no doubt fueled by his dominant victory over Mikey Garcia. Spence’s insertion at No. 4 bumped down former undisputed cruiserweight world champion Oleksandr Usyk, now campaigning at heavyweight, from No. 4 to No. 5, while Gennady Golovkin drops to No. 6 and Naoya Inoue moves to No. 7.
With a late push, Juan Francisco Estrada debuts at No. 8 based on his unanimous decision victory over Srisaket Sor Rungvisai and Mikey Garcia drops from No. 7 to No. 9. IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champ Anthony Joshua stays at 10.
1. Vasiliy Lomachenko (205 points)
Lightweight
13-1-0 (10 KOs)
2. Terence Crawford (204)
Welterweight
35-0-0 (26 KOs)
3. Canelo Alvarez (157)
Middleweight
51-1-2 (35 KOs)
4. Errol Spence Jr. (135)
Welterweight
25-0-0 (21 KOs)
5. Oleksandr Usyk (118)
Heavyweight
16-0-0 (12 KOs)
6. Gennady Golovkin (107)
Middleweight
38-1-1 (34 KOs)
7. Naoya Inoue (89)
Bantamweight
17-0-0 (15 KOs)
8. Juan Francisco Estrada (54)
Jr. Bantamweight
39-3 (26 KOs)
9. Mikey Garcia (37)
Lightweight
39-1-0 (30 KOs)
10. Anthony Joshua (36)
Heavyweight
22-0-0 (21 KOs)
Also receiving votes: Srisaket Sor Rungvisai (32), Jarrett Hurd (13), Leo Santa Cruz (12), Oleksandr Gvozdyk (8), Donnie Nietes (5), Gervonta Davis (3), Jermall Charlo (4), Dmitriy Bivol (3), Sergey Kovalev (2), Regis Prograis (2), Deontay Wilder (1), Manny Pacquiao (1), Kosei Tanaka (1).
